The social media platform X has sparked major outrage after people used its artificial intelligence assistant Grok to change pictures of females by removing their garments.
Multiple cases have surfaced where the technology has been used to virtually strip women to show them in bikinis non-consensually, as well as to insert them in sexualized situations.
Developer Response and Legal Position
XAI, the organization responsible for Grok, remained silent to questions, except for an standard response stating "traditional news outlets lies".
A government representative stated that new laws is being brought forward to ban nudification tools. Under a upcoming law, anyone who distributed such tools would "face a prison sentence and heavy penalties".
"X or Grok is capable of halting these forms of abuse if they wanted to," said a law professor, adding they "operate with a lack of consequences."
Regulator Position and Tool Functionality
The regulator Ofcom said technology companies must "assess the danger" of people accessing illegal content on their networks, but did not confirm whether it was at this time examining X or Grok in relation to AI-generated pictures.
Grok is a free AI assistant—with some paid-for features—which reacts to X users' requests when they tag it in a message.
It is commonly used to give reactions or further context to other users' comments, but people on X are also capable of modify an posted picture through its artificial intelligence picture modification feature.
History of Controversy and Policy
The system has been faulted for allowing users to produce photos and clips with nudity and sexually suggestive content, and it was earlier accused of creating inappropriate material of celebrities.
"X has been permitting the production and spread of these pictures for months without taking any action and we have not seen any action by oversight bodies," Professor McGlynn added.
XAI's own usage rules forbids "portraying likenesses of individuals in a graphic way".
In a statement, Ofcom said it was against the law to "create or circulate private pictures or child sexual abuse material" and stated this applied to explicit AI images made with AI.
It said services such as X were required to take "appropriate measures" to "lessen the danger" of users encountering unlawful material on their platforms and to remove it promptly when they become aware of it.
